


Petrichor

by simplegirlsimplefeelings



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, h/c, implied PTSD, implied panic attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 05:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5573347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplegirlsimplefeelings/pseuds/simplegirlsimplefeelings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>FN 2187 hated the rain. Finn doesn't know how he feels about it. Poe helps him figure it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Petrichor

It’s not that Finn didn’t like the rain. Finn didn’t have an opinion on it yet. But FN-2187 definitely hadn’t liked the rain. Back on Starkiller, rain didn’t mean the Stormtroopers could go inside and cozy up. Rain meant training in the rain. Waterlogged boots. Wet undershirt sticking to your neck. Everything cold, and soggy, and miserable.

Finn didn’t know how to respond to rain, now that he could experience it safely inside a warm bunker. It had rained a few times on D’Qar since Finn had been taken there, but he hadn’t been awake for most of them. The first time he heard drops on the window of the medical bay, his mind flashed. He swore it was blaster fire, or troopers from the First Order attempting to get in. His vision had blurred, and his heart rate shot up so quickly it sent several nurses running over to his bedside. 

Several nurses and Poe Dameron. 

Poe hadn’t been far from his side since Finn had been taken to the medical bay, even before Finn had woken up. One of the nurses whispered to him when he first woke up, “that pilot must really care about you, he’s been here every day for weeks." Finn had tried to mentally push down the flush creeping its way up his neck. 

When the heart rate monitor alarm went off during that first rain, Poe was right in the thick of it with the resistance nurses. 

“Hey! What’s going on?” he demanded, as he gripped one hand around Finn’s arm. 

Finn tried to breathe normally, but his head was still rushing. He swore all of their lives were in danger and yet, Poe calmly crouched down to be at eye level with Finn, brow raised in concern for his friend.

“The window,” Finn said, startled, still feeling anxiety coursing through his body. 

“It’s okay, buddy, it’s just rain. We’re fine.” Poe clapped his hand on Finn’s shoulder. Finn winced slightly, but Poe wasn’t looking. He had already turned to ask one of the nurses if everything was alright (which it was). Just feeling Poe’s hand on his shoulder was helping Finn to feel grounded, to remind him where he was and that he was safe now.

 

After that, the rain hadn’t affected Finn the same way. It made him tense, but it never triggered him like that again. Poe, who had made the chair to the left of Finn’s hospital bed his second home, always made sure to distract Finn when a storm would pick up outside. He told Finn stories about the rain back on Yavin 4, how when he was a little kid he would pretend to navigate an A-wing through the rain, making sure to stomp in every puddle he could. The time he and his Republic squadron played hooky for a day and went swimming in a natural spring during a rainstorm on one of the planets in the Hosnian system. Poe’s usual air of confidence wavered as he remembered that the entire system had been destroyed. 

Eventually, Finn was released from the medical bay and was assigned his own bunker. Poe pushed Finn’s wheelchair while simultaneously carrying an armful of the blankets, pillows, books, and, of course, Poe’s now-tattered jacket, all of which had been dragged to the medical bay one by one as Poe spent more and more of his time there. 

Poe pressed the button next to the door of Finn’s new bunker, and it whooshed open, revealing a rather stark room with a bed, a desk, a dresser, and one window, looking out over the forest on D’Qar. Clouds had formed outside, and rain was beginning to plink down onto the window. As Finn fidgeted in his wheelchair, Poe dropped the pile of his things onto the desk. 

“Hope you weren’t planning on using that,” Poe said, his boyish smile spreading across his face. 

Finn still looked anxious, staring past Poe through the window outside. He didn’t like how vulnerable he felt here. He was no longer behind six doors and armed guards in the medical bay. That was the rest of the galaxy, right out there behind that window. If the First Order wanted to find him, if Kylo Ren wanted to find him, there was only one thin layer of glass they would have to get through. 

“Can you stay?” Finn asked, looking back at Poe, who had made no movement indicating he would do otherwise. 

Poe sensed Finn’s worry, and his smile faltered. But Finn could almost see the lightbulb go off in Poe's head, when his smile spread back across his face, bigger than ever. “I have a better idea,” Poe said devilishly.

Finn was curious, and he felt a smile creep onto his own face as his cheeks flushed. Before Finn could ask what Poe had up his sleeve, Poe was wheeling him around towards the door again, which flew open. As he pushed Finn through the doorway, he reached behind him with one hand to grab the worn, brown jacket that sat on top of the pile of items on the desk. “You’re gonna need this,” he said, handing it to Finn. 

As they darted down the hallway in the bunkers, Finn could have sworn he felt Poe’s smile radiating warmth onto him. The vulnerability he had felt earlier had dissipated with Poe at his back. Poe wheeled the chair into an elevator and pressed the very top button. When they exited the chamber onto the roof of the Resistance base, rain had begun to drizzle down from the grey clouds above them. 

“Poe, what are we doing up here?” Finn began to protest, but Poe didn’t listen. The wind was rushing around them, thunder rumbling in the distance, but Poe walked out to the middle of the roof, arms outstretched, face up towards the sky, letting the rain fall on him. His smile was just as infectious as always, and one look into Poe’s warm, brown eyes made Finn forget what he had been afraid of to begin with. 

Finn pushed himself out to meet Poe on the roof, who knelt down to see him at eye level again. Finn felt that familiar warmth, but it wasn’t just creeping up his neck, it was radiating from his chest to his fingertips. His entire body felt fuzzy and safe with Poe here. The rain had caused Poe’s hair to lose its familiar tousled texture, and instead it flopped onto his forehead, water dripping in his face.

Finn, who was wearing Poe’s jacket,  _ his _ jacket, didn’t feel any of the cold, soggy misery he had associated with the rain on Starkiller. He felt warm, his fingertips practically tingling with excitement. He tilted his head back and opened his mouth to let a few rain drops fall on his tongue. Immediately he felt sheepish, but when he looked back down, Poe was doing the exact same thing. 

Their gaze met again, and Poe put a hand on Finn’s knee. “Finn, I know you went through a lot of messed up things,” he said, practically shouting over the wind that was now roaring around the roof. “But it doesn’t make you a messed up person.” Finn nodded. He had told himself that same thing over and over again, but hearing Poe say it made him feel instantly relieved. 

“You’re a good man, Finn,” Poe added, clapping his hand on Finn’s knee as he stood up. 

“You are too, Poe."

Poe smiled yet again, and Finn did the same. “You ready to do some donuts?” He grabbed the handles of Finn’s wheelchair and began racing around the roof, expertly steering them in circles, dodging vents and walls, splashing through puddles, until they were both soaked from the rain, hollering with excitement, and gasping for air. 

Poe wheeled them back into the elevator and down towards the bunkers, but was stopped by a withering look from a small disapproving woman. “General Organa,” Poe stammered, trying to regain his glib demeanor. Finn got the feeling that Leia was one of the only people in the galaxy that could make Poe lose his cool. Finn tried to think of any possible excuse for why they would be strolling down a hallway, soaked from head to toe. 

She looked them up and down, and with a knowing smile.

“As you were, gentlemen."

Finn and Poe darted forward, and raced to Finn’s bunker. As the door zipped closed behind them, Poe leaned back against the wall to catch his breath, both of them laughing so hard their sides hurt. 

FN-2187 may have hated rain, but Finn loved it.  

 


End file.
